Christian McCaffrey Skipping Bowl Game to Prepare for NFL

Christian McCaffrey is cutting his Stanford career short, again. A few weeks after announcing he wouldn’t be returning to the Cardinal for his senior season, the dynamic Stanford running back announced he has already played his final college game.

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Christian McCaffrey will not take part in 16th-ranked Stanford’s Sun Bowl game against the North Carolina Tar Heels on December 30th. Instead, the 21-year-old potential first-round draft pick is beginning his preparation for the draft immediately.

With his college career now over, McCaffrey leaves Stanford as the third-leading rusher in school history with 3,922 yards. His 5,128 yards from scrimmage are second-most. He holds the school record for most rushing yards in a single season, gaining 2,019 yards in 2015, and has the two highest single game rushing totals for a Cardinal back. His 284 yards against Cal in the 2016 Big Game is far and away number one, followed by his 243-yard performance against UCLA in 2015. He was Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2015, and finished ninth in voting this season.

The resume speaks for itself for McCaffrey, and he doesn’t need the bowl game to prop up stats just a little bit more. Instead, he’s making a smart decision and keeping his body safe ahead of the NFL draft. McCaffrey missed one game this year, and was limited in a couple others by an undisclosed injury.

McCaffrey is not alone in his decision. LSU running back Leonard Fournette, also a potential first-round pick that left school a year early, is skipping the Tigers’ Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl against the Louisville Cardinals on December 31st. Fournette has missed four games this season because of a lingering ankle injury that was suffered in August during a scrimmage.

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Players get hurt in bowl games every year. Just look at Notre Dame’s Jaylon Smith, a linebacker that severely injured his knee last season in the Irish’s bowl game. Smith went from likely being among the first handful of picks in the draft to being a second-round pick that missed his entire rookie season. The fact that the Dallas Cowboys even took Smith in the second round was a big shock at the time.

For McCaffrey, and even more so for Fournette, skipping this game to stay healthy and get ready for the draft is a good move. Both missed time this year because of injuries, and this final bowl game is, for the most part, meaningless. They aren’t playing for the national championship. Why risk injury (again) when your draft stock is pretty much already set? A good performance in the bowl game won’t do much to raise their stock, but an injury can drastically drop it.

This could be just the beginning for something like this. It wouldn’t be surprising in the least to see more and more star players skipping bowl games for their own future’s sake. They’ve got to look out for themselves and keep their futures intact. football players have such limited shelf lives that they need to take advantage of it while they can.

Next: Stanford to Face UNC in Sun Bowl

Some may look at this as a selfish move, and justifiably so. But a selfish move can be a smart move as well.